Posted by Dinah on April 15, 2006, at 9:16:40
In reply to Re: This is old, but I find many haven't heard of it., posted by special_k on April 14, 2006, at 20:43:57
I think the intent was more to protect religion from the state than vice versa. It's freedom "of" religion, not freedom "from" religion. And separation of church and state was meant to keep the state from establishing a religion and persecution of people practicing a different religion. Since a substantial number of our original colonies were established by people seeking the freedom to practice their own religion without persecution.
It would be difficult to see that our forefathers meant to exclude any mention of God in state matters, given that the Declaration of Independence mentions a deity, and if I'm not mistaken (and I well may be) there's some sort of introduction or quote not included in the Constitution, but associated with it that mentions God.
Freedom from religion is a far more recent public dialog, perhaps because of the growing atheism as a religion. And mentions of theist religions probably violate an atheist's right to practice atheism. But then possibly extinguishment of all mentions of god or gods might promote atheism to the exclusion of other religions.
poster:Dinah
thread:632815
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20060322/msgs/633412.html